Panther Hollow, Pittsburgh

Details

Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965)
Panther Hollow, Pittsburgh
signed 'EW. Redfield' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 50 in. (96.5 x 127 cm.)
Painted circa 1919.

Provenance

The artist, until 1959.
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York.
Private collection, acquired from the above, 1974.
By descent to the present owner, 2004.

Literature

The Woodmere Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings and Crafts by Edward W. Redfield, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1959, n.p., no. 59.
The William Penn Memorial Museum, A Retrospective Exhibition of The Work of The Great American Impressionist Edward Willis Redfield of Pennsylvania, exhibition catalogue, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1973, n.p., no. 40, illustrated.
T. Folk, Edward Redfield (1869-1965), exhibition catalogue, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1981, pp. 7, 9, no. 7, illustrated (as Panther Valley).
T. Folk, Edward Redfield: First Master of the 20th Century Landscape, exhibition catalogue, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1987, pp. 48, 83, no. 28, illustrated.
J.M.W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield, 1869-1965, An American Impressionist: His Paintings and The Man Behind the Palette, Lahaska, Pennsylvania, 1996, p. 174, no. 529 (as Panther Hollow-Pittsburgh). J.M.W. Fletcher, Edward Willis Redfield: An American Impressionist, 1869-1965, vol. two, Lahaska, Pennsylvania, 2002, p. 402, no. 274.

Exhibited

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 114th Annual Exhibition, 1919.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Woodmere Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings and Crafts by Edward W. Redfield, November 1-22, 1959.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, The William Penn Memorial Museum, A Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of the Great American Impressionist Edward Willis Redfield of Pennsylvania, March 31-May 13, 1973.
New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Art Gallery, Edward Redfield (1869-1965), March 9-April 18, 1981, no. 7 (as Panther Valley).
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Selected American Paintings, 1750-1950, May 18-July 22, 1984.
Allentown, Pennsylvania, Allentown Art Museum, and elsewhere, Edward Redfield: First Master of the 20th Century Landscape, September 20, 1987-January 10, 1988.
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, 2009-March 2010, on loan.

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Lot Essay

In 1919 Edward Redfield moved with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for several years as the artist was a juror for the 1919 Carnegie International Exhibition and his son, Laurent, was enrolled at the Carnegie Technical School. Dr. Thomas Folk writes of the artist's paintings from this period, "Redfield's Pittsburgh scenes center on squalor, focusing on man's impact on the environment. They stand apart from the rest of his oeuvre, in which the artist was conscientiously striving to paint the beautiful. Redfield's Pittsburgh views call to mind the work of certain members of The Eight or the Aschcan School, as well as that of fellow Pennsylvania Impressionist Robert Spencer, who specialized in scenes of Bucks County factories and tenements." (Edward Redfield: First Master of the Twentieth Century Landscape, exhibition catalogue, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1987, pp. 48-49)

Panther Hollow, Pittsburgh, an arresting and expansive aerial view of the town with a striking, mountainous vista beyond, is exemplary of Redfield's Pittsburgh paintings and demonstrates the artist's mastery of light, color and composition. The brushwork is characteristically varied as the painterly surface alternates between thick impasto and thin, broad swaths of color. A train steams through the left portion of the work, towards a bridge in the distance, both symbols of industrialization.

Dr. Thomas Folk wrote of the importance of the present work, "Panther Hollow, Pittsburgh, Redfield's finest Pittsburgh scene, is a graphic interpretation of a ramshackle industrial town carved into a hillside." (Edward Redfield: First Master of the Twentieth Century Landscape, p. 48)

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Edward Redfield's work being compiled by Dr. Thomas Folk.

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